Etymograph

English

brachycephalic

Brachycephalic comes from New Latin brachycephalus ‘short-headed’, and goes back to Ancient Greek βραχυκέφαλος.

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEβραχυκέφαλοςbrakhuképhalos
  2. New Latinc. 1500–1900brachycephalus‘short-headed’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1912brachycephalic

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEβραχυκέφαλοςbrakhuképhalos
  2. New Latinc. 1500–1900brachycephalus‘short-headed’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1912brachycephalic

Earliest quotation: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […]: “Round-headed," he muttered. "Brachycephalic, gray-eyed, black-haired, with suggestion of…”

A compound of βραχύς ‘short’ + κεφαλή ‘head’

Proto-Indo-European *mreǵʰ- ‘short’

Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus ‘short, brief’

Proto-Hellenic *brəkʰús

Ancient Greek βραχύς ‘short’

Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- ‘to give’

Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ-l̥ ‘head’

Proto-Hellenic *kʰepʰəlā́

Ancient Greek κεφαλή ‘head’

Every English word from Ancient Greek βραχυκέφαλος

Today it means

adj Having a head that is short from front to back (relative to its width from left to right); having a broad skull with a cephalic index over 80.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Ancient Greek βραχυκέφαλος / brachycephalic

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